In what can be described as a Shark Tank for students from area colleges, Boyd Rankin of Coker University took first place and $3,600 for his idea: LaxReShot, an automatic ball return system designed to minimize downtime in lacrosse practice.

The Pee Dee Idea Challenge started out as the kernel of an idea in spring 2016, according to the event’s co-founder and organizer, Andrew Burkemper, director of the Center for Leadership and Entrepreneurship, and associate professor of business at Coker University. Burkemper said in an email, “It’s kind of funny that the original idea started at a 4-year-old’s birthday party at Chick-fil-A.”

Burkemper said the party’s host had introduced him to Joe Aniello, then-professor of management at Francis Marion University, where he had already been working on entrepreneurship initiatives.

“Joe and I hit it off right away and decided we’d find a way to have our universities collaborate together for the good of our students,” Burkemper said. “As we brainstormed different ideas through the summer, we kept coming back to an interdisciplinary business idea framework that would create a friendly competition across university lines and ideally grow across the region over time.”

Idea Challenge co-founder Aniello is now professor emeritus of management of the Francis Marion University School of Business, having retired in 2024. “Andy and I were interested in collaborating on something that was bigger than our respective universities; that’s unusual,” Aniello said in a phone interview. “A lot of times, professors can be territorial. They like to stick to their own discipline, and they’re protective of it, for good reason.

“We believed this had the potential to be something special, something that was bigger than the both of us. We said, ‘Hey let's do something big here.’”

The two managed to obtain sponsorships from The Clouse-Elrod Foundation Inc. and the Wells Fargo Foundation and launched the Pee Dee Idea Challenge for the spring 2017 semester.

At the beginning, it was a collaboration between Coker and Francis Marion with 14 entries from 31 students competing for $5,000. Now, the program has expanded to include participation from Coastal Carolina University, Florence-Darlington Technical College and Northeastern Technical College.

This year’s Challenge drew 118 entries, tying the record set last year, from hundreds of students, all competing for $10,000 in prizes.

While fielding questions from judges during the final round, which took place over a Zoom call, Rankin said that, though he did not have a working prototype model for the LaxReShot, he planned to start by filing for a patent and looking into funding for the development of a prototype. He said he expects it would cost $300 to produce one machine that he could sell for $500-$600.

Coming in second place and receiving a $2,400 prize was Eco Shelf, an idea for a smart device that tracks freshness of foods in your refrigerator. Eco Shelf was conceived by Michaela Nemerow and Devin McGowan of Coastal Carolina.

MeowMetrics by Willow DiGravio from Coastal Carolina came in third place, receiving a $1100 prize. MeowMetrics is an idea for a cat collar that monitors the wearer’s health and activity. DiGravio also received the Steven Weingartner audience choice award of $250.

Coming in fourth place and winning $750 was Gather Flo, an idea for an outdoor venue with an open-air food court pitched by Francis Marion students Catherine Green, Elese Capell, Florsita Piquaso and Ethan Williams. The students said an ideal the area of Darlington Street and Hoffmeyer Road in Florence would make an ideal potential location for Gather Flo.

Coming in fifth and winning $700 was College Connected, pitched by Grace Hapes, Kasey Lewis and Emily Burton, students at Coastal Carolina. College Connected is an idea for a social media app that helps college students become more involved with their campus communities.

The five semifinalist teams that did not make it to the final round each received $250 prizes:

In 2016, Burkemper and Aniello had an idea, but they needed sponsors.

Burkemper said, “We immediately thought of Dr. Wil Clouse, who was Joe’s professor and faculty adviser during his doctoral program.”

Clouse is founder and president of Tennessee-based nonprofit Clouse-Elrod Foundation and professor emeritus of Vanderbilt University. Clouse said in an email that he started the 501(c)(3) foundation in 2011 “to develop initiatives in creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.”

“The foundation is small but, as we say, ‘we have quick hands’ and can pivot quickly to see new and innovative ideas,” he said. “We are interested in developing the next generation of individuals who are independent, creative and innovative thinkers, who can think outside of structured environments, who can develop new pathways, who are trailblazers and who have the maverick spirit.”

Clouse said he had come to South Carolina to help Aniello start up an innovation and entrepreneurship center at Francis Marion in the early 2000s. “Sometime thereafter, I had the opportunity to meet Andy at Coker University and was very impressed with his ambitious and creative ideas. Thus, this Shark Tank idea was developed.”

Burkemper said, “Wil has been instrumental in the long-term success of the Pee Dee Idea Challenge. He has served as a finalist judge for all 10 competitions, and the foundation has been the premiere sponsor since our inception.”

Semifinalist pitches had been reviewed by a panel of judges “who have been long-term supporters of entrepreneurship, innovation and education in the Pee Dee region,” according to Burkemper.

Clouse served as a judge for the final round, as did Kristie Deas, manager of retail banking for the Coastal Carolina region at First Citizens Bank, and local entrepreneur Jamie Kelly. Deas said in a LinkedIn direct message that this is her fourth time judging the competition. Kelly said in a phone interview that she has run businesses in the Pee Dee region for the last 15 years, including Hartsville-based hair salon Indigo, which also has a location in Florence. Kelly has judged seven Pee Dee Idea Challenges in both semifinalist and finalist rounds.

Additionally, 10 semifinalist-round judges narrowed 118 entries down to a top 10: Quinetta Buterbaugh, Lauren Griggs, Ed Guerrera, Rachel Lane, Curtis Lee, Trevor McDonald, Murphy Monk, Toy Smith and Greg Thomas, as well as Joe Aniello.

Aniello said “I make myself available to judge because, quite often, judges will commit to judging, and then something will come up at the last the minute, and they can’t do it.”

This was one such year, he said. “I had to pick two favorites out of 13 pitches, and I had to turn it around in an afternoon.”

Burkemper also identified his fellow co-organizers from the other participating colleges as “instrumental to the continued success of the Idea Challenge.”

Among the winners of the Idea Challenge in recent years, two have been tech oriented: A pitch for wildfire-fighting drones and a pen that writes on any surface and transfers the scribbles to a mobile app. One winner had pitched a process that converts vegetables with minor defects into chips, while another provided various services for precious metals. The 2022 winner was Lochwood Studios, a “marketing and media group that tells stories through photo, video and graphic design,” Burkemper said, adding that the 2022 Pee Dee Idea Challenge and its champion, Greyson Johnson of Coker University, had been recognized with the Ibrahim Janajreh Young Innovator Award

The award is presented by InnoVision — a SC nonprofit that celebrates “technological innovation in products, services, education and community service” in the state, according to the group’s website — and recognizes educational programs that encourage young people to become involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

According to Burkemper, “The overarching objective of the Pee Dee Idea Challenge is to get good ideas out of our students; heads by having them dig into five critical areas of entrepreneurial success: The problem, the solution, the target market, the competitive advantage and the business model.”

He said the Challenge’s focus on the “idea stage,” the early conception of the business idea,” was a conscious decision to make the competition accessible to all students, independent of background. “We want to encourage an entrepreneurial and innovative mindset among our students to show them that their ideas matter and can take them a long way by starting a new venture or being innovative in a career path of their choosing,” he said.

It was also a conscious decision to not require the winners to spend their prize money on a venture. Burkemper said real value comes from rewarding “strong ideas and encouraging the students to pursue their own version of entrepreneurship and innovative thinking beyond the competition.”

He says he has seen many competitors from previous Pee Dee Idea Challenges parlay their ideas into businesses, but this may not directly culminate in a pipeline for new businesses in the Pee Dee. “Although not our top priority,” Burkemper said, “the Idea Challenge definitely contributes to the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.”